Telecommuting – a fashionable fad or a work revolution whose time has come? Logic suggests that the latter is the case, and Edward Segal, writing in the Wall Street Journal, has gathered some of the evidence: with the 1990 US census showing that a full 50% of employees in writing and word processing jobs, and all the necessary technology in place, the potential is enormous; there are currently 5.5m telecommuters in the US according to Link Resources Inc, New York – including nearly 2,000 people, from financial managers through engineers and planners – of the 65,000 employed by Pacific Telesis Group Inc’s Pacific Bell unit, which launched a pilot programme in 1985 with 100 volunteer employees and hasn’t looked back, its rules being that people working at home must keep to regular working hours, be as accessible as their colleagues in the office during their agreed hours, and have performance monitored.
